Kestrel 5700 Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics

The introduction of The Kestrel 5700 Elite Weather Meter with Bryan Litz Applied Ballistics in 2015 surpassed the old Gold standard in wind meters, the Kestrel 4500NV with Applied Ballistics. The past 4 years have proven that the 5700 are most certainly a step up from the 4500 series which we outline below with improved bluetooth, better design and better display. The Kestrel 5700 Elite Weather Meter with Bryan Litz Applied Ballistics is an amazing weather meter for measurement and logging of primary environmental conditions, including wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, heat index, pressure, and altitude.

If you are familiar with Bryan Litz’ work you will know his calculations are spot on. Sometimes Bullet manufacturers get optimistic on their posted BC’s for their bullets but Bryan sets the record straight to give you accurate dope to get the shot on target.

This windmeter gets an enthusiastic two thumbs up from us.

Kestrel 5700 Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics

 

The Kestrel Elite 5000 series Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics changes over the previous Kestrel 4500 Applied Ballistics series :

  • Bluetooth LINK on meters with Bluetooth to Smartphones / Mobile / Android / IOS that now works to 100ft from the previous 30ft
  • Takes 1 AA battery (instead of 2 AAA that require a shim between them to alleviate interference with the magnetic compass)
  • Battery door is in the back, with a separate compartment sealed away from the motherboard, should your battery leak as was common with all the 4000 series. Many Kestrel’s were destroyed by this problem.
  • Improved high resolution screen for any lighting (even sunlight) and easy on your eyes.
  • Intuitive user-interface screen navigation
  • Multiple Languages: English, French, German, Spanish
  • Scratch and breakage-resistant window
  • All meters include both options of Red (NV – Night Vision) & Green backlights.
  • Slightly bigger, not really noticeable difference. Fits same cases and rotary vanes.
Kestrel 4500 NV
Kestrel 4500 NV

Battery compartment of previous generation Kestrel 4500NV, note circuit board directly beside battery. Absolutely terrible design, pay more and go for the Kestrel 5700.

If you select the Bluetooth Kestrel LINK model (98% of what they sell), download the Kestrel LiNK Ballistics app to your smart phone to load your guns / ammo to the meter. The new Kestrel Meters with Bluetooth include the software necessary to communicate wirelessly at a range of up to 100 feet with a clear line of site (walls or obstacles will effect this range). There is no more following the meter around looking for the windspeed display, it appears on your phone.

Do I need a Dongle or Cable?

There is a free app for both Android and iPhone for the Ballistic Profile Loader. This is what you use to load your Gun/Ammo combinations to the Kestrel. You can NOT load your gun profiles from the Dongle., however the Kestrel 5000 USB cable is an option.

All 5000 series meters will have both a bright green backlight, which is great for even high sunlight conditions, and a night-vision preserving backlight. The red night vision (NV) backlight incorporates optical filter to reduce overall brightness and minimize blue and green spectrum light to preserve night vision. (Note: This ‘night vision’ is not compatible with night-vision equipment.) Basically, with the red backlight, your eyes don’t need to adjust when looking from your meter to the horizon in night time use.

The Kestrel 5700 with Kestrel LINK will work in conjunction with most bluetooth range finders and will also work with many other apps on the market for ballistics and weather function. It’s the most popular for ballistic applications due to the compass with crosswind functions.The Kestrel applied ballistics meter combines sophisticated environmental sensing features with long-range shooting ballistics information in one hand-held device.

The built in Applied Ballistics software provides all of the following:

  • The accurate and trusted ‘Litz’ library of G1 and G7 referenced Ballistic Coefficients(BC’s).
  • Custom drag curve modeling; helpful in engaging targets beyond the supersonic range of the bullet.
  • Ballistic Calibration (truing) feature allows you to ‘train’ the solver based on actual bullet impact.
  • PC Loader software; build firearm profiles on your computer and transfer them via wire or Bluetooth

The Kestrel Shooter’s Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics Technology measures up to 15 environmental parameters and allows users to select from either G1 or G7 ballistic coefficients (BC) when calculating a trajectory at the range. The handy, portable meter also offers the “Litz” measured BC library of well over 200 bullets and growing, which is considered to be the most extensive source of measured data for modern small arms bullets.

Users can also train the Kestrel Shooters Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics software to match a specific rifle based on observed impacts at long range with the ballistics calibration feature, which offers even more accurate data points for users to rely on. With easy access to more accurate BC data, shooters have everything they need to make a much more precise trajectory calculation in a compact and durable Kestrel meter design.

Please note that access to the full Applied Ballistics Custom Curve library REQUIRES the Applied Ballistics Profile Loader via the Cable, or loaded from you smartphone with LiNK, free from the App Store or Google Play. For full gun and bullet profile customization and backup, we recommend our customers purchase the unit with Bluetooth wireless data transfer for ease of use and functionality.

Books / DVD 

Read the books or watch the DVD’s by Bryan Litz of Applied Ballistics and the Litz Library to learn more about the process. The books were covered in a previous review of ours titled Ten Books Every Long Range Shooters Must Read and include Applied Ballistics: Accuracy and Precision for Long Range Shooting: A Practical Guide for Riflemen, and Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting.

Kestrel With Applied Ballistics and LiNK (Bluetooth) 

It cannot be stressed strongly enough, buy the Bluetooth model when you get a Kestrel.

Kestrel 5700 Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics with integrated Bluetooth® technology offer the ultimate in portable and accurate environmental data. Now, both real-time and logged data can be transferred wirelessly and automatically to a MAC/PC, or Smartphone. Yes, even iPhone. It also connects via LiNK to the following Range Finders where you can view results from the AB Kestrel right on your Range Finder.   All updates to the meter will be done through the LiNK by just connecting it to your phone and you will be asked to update your device.

Currently, the Kestrel 5700 and the Kestrel 5700 Elite with LiNK can be integrated with:

Do I really need the Bluetooth (or USB Cable)?

You can enter all your data manually except for custom curves. There are several custom curves preloaded, but if you want a different one, you have to download it from your phone. You can load up to 30 guns, one bullet each platform. In the case where you have multiple ammo types for a given rifle, you have to enter a whole new gun for each ammo type.

What’s the difference between the Applied Ballistics and the Horus version?

The main differences between the two models is The Applied Ballistics model has a different truing application with drop scale factor, it has bullet length as a standard gun input (used to calculate spin drift) offers +\- angle input and has the ability to use G1, G7 and custom drag profiles. The unit comes preloaded with 7 custom curves, and the Gun loader will have over 100 custom drag profiles to use.

How do I use the Kestrel 5700 Elite Applied Ballistic meter?

The manual is available for download below to see how it works.

Kestrel 5700

 Applied Ballistics:

  • Custom Drag Curves
  • G1 and G7 support
  • Better PC application for ease of building library
  • Crosswind Jump: truing in winds without it can give you an errant MV
  • If you calibrate in one environment and move to a drastically different environment, the device will adjust automatically
  • Able to export the windage, elevation, wind speed via Bluetooth to an external device

Horus:

  • Can build custom drag curves, but user needs to do it on their own
  • G1 support only
  • Widely used in the military world wide
  • Many people are trained on it and used to the way the system operates

Kestrel Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics Features

  • Employs the Applied Ballistics bullet library of custom drag models, an exact measurement of your bullet’s drag profile plus corrections for Aerodynamic Jump, Spin Drift, Coriolis, and Drop Scale Factoring to achieve accurate extended long-range shots.
  • Expanded features include a customizable Range Card, and an expanded Ballistics Data Table as well as storage for up to 16 gun and bullet profiles and 5 saved targets.
  • Calculate accurate fire control solutions for long range rifle shooting.
  • Select either G1 or G7 ballistic coefficient when calculating a trajectory.
  • Get ballistic coefficient data for more than 200 long range bullets.
  • The AB Kestrel comes with numerous pre-loaded drag models, but not entire gun/ammo profiles. In other words you have to build your gun profile, but you can choose from the list of bullets when modeling your ammo.
  • Measure up to 15 environmental parameters at your fingertips.
  • “Train” the software to match your specific rifle based on observed impacts at long range
  • Calculates and adjusts for gyroscopic spin drift and Coriolis effect
  • Adjust for angle
  • Wind speed/air velocity
  • Temperature
  • Wind chill
  • Relative humidity
  • Heat stress index
  • Dewpoint temp
  • Wet bulb temp
  • Barometric pressure
  • Altitude
  • Density altitude
  • Wind direction
  • Crosswind
  • Headwind/Tailwind
  • Pressure trend

Models & SKUs:

 

Kestrel 5000 series sensor specifications

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